Leftover Pastry Biscuits

This is a very simple, easy way to use leftover pastry after making a pie.

I found a slab of pastry in my freezer that I’d made a while ago in a burst of pastry inspiration and sort of forgotten about. But then, last night I had people coming over for dinner and had completely forgotten about dessert! I know, I know, cookies really aren’t dessert material, but I was in a pinch!

If you already have pastry made, this really is simple- cut, bake and ice.

If you don’t, don’t panic! Pastry is really easy (and fun- probably my favourite!) to make! Also, deceptively, pastry is the same as a very basic biscuit dough- butter, flour and sugar. What more do you need?

Leftover Pastry Biscuits

For the biscuit dough:

60g butter

125g plain flour

50g caster sugar

1-2 tablespoons cold water, if needed

Rub the butter into the flour either with your fingers or in a food processor until the mixture resembles yellow breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar. Then, begin to work into in a ball. If needed, added a small splash of the cold water, but not too much that the mixture becomes too wet and sloppy. Once it has formed a ball, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for at least 20 minutes.

After it has rested, roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. I often find that the easiest way to do this is between two sheets of cling film. This prevents it sticking to the surface, and it also means that you don’t have to keep adding flour to it, which can make the dough too tough and not crumbly when it is baked.

Cut out circles of dough using either a pastry cutter or, if you don’t have one, a normal sized drinking glass. Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes at 180 degrees or until they are starting to turn golden brown.

While they cool, make the icing.

For the decoration:

juice of half a lemon

about 6 tablespoons of icing sugar

Mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar until you have a thick, opaque icing. You want it runny enough that it is easy to spread but not too watery that it just runs off the biscuit. Add the icing sugar slowly and keep mixing well. If you need to add more to get it to the perfect consistency, definitely do so.

Once it is runny and white and your biscuits are cool, spread the icing over half the biscuit and allow to set slightly. Decorate with whatever you fancy! I used some rose flavoured sugar and dried flower petals.